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Brexit: give me a positive effect... XIV

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TheDecameron said:
“No strategic planning by U.K. Government to make Brexit a success” . The Hitachi train factory created in Durham, to build trains for Europe will now only service U.K. demand- the site will not reach its planned capacity as Italy will take over production for the European market.

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...st-chamber-of-commerce?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other


A letter to Boris Johnson sent a fortnight ago by James Ramsbotham called on the prime minister to save the north-east from the “damage being done to our economy” by Brexitand urged him to give it his “most urgent and personal attention”. Two weeks later, it remains unanswered.

Ramsbotham is the chief executive of the North East England Chamber of Commerce and speaks for thousands of businesses caught by the red tape and extra costs of complying with EU rules. In a recent survey, 38% of members said sales to Europe had fallen since January.
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Whilst I submit to the wider points on the suppression of exports to the EU following Brexit, I've had some difficulty with the Hitachi comments, which the Guardian led with despite that fact that it only comprises a tail-end comment in the piece.

Hitachi actually acquired its 'new' factory in Italy in 2015, so before the referendum, and did so by its acquisition of the existing facilities of AnsaldoBreda in Pistoia. According to all the Hitachi publicity that I can find, the factory in Newton Aycliffe was set up to fulfill the contract for the replacement of the old Intercity 125 stock. There has been a small contract to supply vehicles for a new Metro line in Milan, but the assembly plant is actually running at beyond capacity with its UK mainline contracts, with some locomotives for the UK actually being assembled in Pistoia.

The existing contracts run until 2023. Hitachi is a global company bidding for and carrying out contracts to supply locomotives and stock to railway systems across the world, including, extensively, the US.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Well, the link did seem to suggest tens of thousands of EU citizens working in the NHS. Given the raw deal the NHS has had during COVID, and seems likely to get in the next few years, I’d not be surprised to see the non-settled EU staff (ie, the ones without family commitments here) buggering off in their droves. The numbers leaving the register have already increased by a factor of 75%, and where that number used to be fairly dynamic (ie, 4000 left in any given year while a similar number joined) I don’t see any inward EU migration to the NHS at the moment, and see no reason to expect it to pick up again.
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Finger in the air type speculation (my mode of operation on PF) thinks maybe the pandemic has provided the non-settled EU nurses/doctors with plenty of work in the hospitals of their own countries.

In other words, why would they put up with the exorbitant rents, food prices/shortages, crap trains/roads and weather when you could be earning similar money doing the same work from the bosoms of their loved ones in Barcelona or the Algarve?
 
EV’s gone all GB News: them Scotch is running up all those woke/left/LGBTQ+ symbols but not his preferred items. What is the place coming to!? It’s Satire.
 
Spraggons Den said:
Finger in the air type speculation (my mode of operation on PF) thinks maybe the pandemic has provided the non-settled EU nurses/doctors with plenty of work in the hospitals of their own countries.

In other words, why would they put up with the exorbitant rents, food prices/shortages, crap trains/roads and weather when you could be earning similar money doing the same work from the bosoms of their loved ones in Barcelona or the Algarve?
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You may be right, albeit they chose to come here initially which suggests their local rates weren’t as attractive back then. I don’t think it was a shortage of work which drew them here, medics seem to be in demand wherever you are. The terms have, of course, changed materially of late and I think you’re right that costs and shortages, crap services and the rest, have probably played their part. All of which have been exacerbated by Brexit of course. But my own finger in the air speculation is that many just don’t feel welcome any more; they may even have detected an increasing groundswell of resentment and hostility.
 
Terribly anecdotal I know but my own recent experiences of Pharmacists and Opticians would suggest that a lot of the people in that profession come from the EU and I believe we are now experiencing shortages of both.

During the referendum we were told by the Leave campaign that UK nationals would train/retrain to fill these gaps over time and in the short term we could chose where we wanted to recruit from, say a commonwealth country such as India for example, and if that wasn't suffice there would be dispensations in place to get workers from the EU.

I suspect we are about to find out if such a policy is workable?
 
Hint….it isn’t. Hard Brexiteers didn’t vote to leave, to allow non-white foreigners back into the UK afterwards. British jobs for etc…ad nauseum but mildly disguised racism all the same.
 
No we really are about to find out for the first time since we left the EU whether the government's policy will work as the country recovers from the economic effects of Covid 19.

Ditto regards the shortage of lorry drivers.
 
eternumviti said:
Whilst I submit to the wider points on the suppression of exports to the EU following Brexit, I've had some difficulty with the Hitachi comments, which the Guardian led with despite that fact that it only comprises a tail-end comment in the piece.

Hitachi actually acquired its 'new' factory in Italy in 2015, so before the referendum, and did so by its acquisition of the existing facilities of AnsaldoBreda in Pistoia. According to all the Hitachi publicity that I can find, the factory in Newton Aycliffe was set up to fulfill the contract for the replacement of the old Intercity 125 stock. There has been a small contract to supply vehicles for a new Metro line in Milan, but the assembly plant is actually running at beyond capacity with its UK mainline contracts, with some locomotives for the UK actually being assembled in Pistoia.

The existing contracts run until 2023. Hitachi is a global company bidding for and carrying out contracts to supply locomotives and stock to railway systems across the world, including, extensively, the US.
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I worked for a different part of Hitachi however we did share office space with Hitachi Rail in London for a while. At that time it was Hitachi Rail's intention to move it's global HQ to the UK, and in particular the plan was to leverage the UK contract and facilities to expand into the EU (although that of course didn't mean that all their EU facilities would be in the UK, as a local presence is definitely needed to service the maintenance contracts). There was talk of further major expansions to the UK operations to support the expected growth. That plan was impacted by Brexit however, and the UK took on less importance in the global plans afterwards.

That info didn't come from the press - I was at a Hitachi exec offsite where we were being briefed on various strategic deals by other parts of the group.
 
It’s clear to anyone- from a global corporate perspective Britain is turning into a medium sized market with country subsidiaries that are regional sales offices and occasionally limited manufacturing presence. Even if they manufacture here for export, they’re not going to want to rely on army reservists called up to keep haulage going are they?
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Fun fact: the UK has signed up to the OECD, and must now enact an OECD directive about reporting rules, ie must incorporate this into domestic law. In just the same way we used to do for EU directives.

I thought we’d taken back control of our own laws. Innit.
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They’ll be askin’ us for money next. Why do they think we shrank the overseas development budget and shut down the ministry?
 
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